i i. i. i i hear a pain and u.s. diplomats stand side by side with ukraine's opposition while russia's foreign minister calls the reaction to the protests hysteria. to guantanamo prisoners. to algeria against their will fear persecution and further imprisonment after being refused permission to reunite with their families that now live in different countries. gambling reforms fall flat in the u.k. despite deep concerns about addiction to betting machines in high street. and i was just crying and. that's when i lost all my pride. we hear the story of

a man who lost his job home and family to the fixed machine. broadcasting twenty four seven live from moscow you're watching international. european and u.s. officials are voicing their strong support for ukraine's opposition some are even spotted attending the anti-government rallies in kiev the top diplomats are in the ukrainian capital for a security summit summit which is not related to the ongoing protests. is in kiev for us. usually there is plenty of people out here at night but yesterday we had to literally teeming not just for the ukrainian protesters but also where the western politicians are one of their own particular victoria nuland who has paid

a visit to the tent city that was set up here by the protesters essentially expressing the u.s. support for the ukrainian opposition and for the protesters as well as the journal and has also held close talks with. the darling of the ukrainian opposition among others that we have seen among the protesters on the square were foreign ministers from sweden germany and the netherlands well as i hope that the talks with europe will renew under a new president essentially hinting at the ultimate goal of the ukrainian protest and that is the current government and the president to step down the interests of western politicians and what is essentially ukrainian domestic affairs has drawn sharp criticism from russia's foreign minister sergei lavrov who said that this type of reaction is simply inadequate the statements that have been voiced today in ukraine i consider for the. especially the hysterics that some european countries are going to have to ukraine right and decided this moment in time not to

sign an agreement the agreement that the experts i'm a government found not profitable for ukraine however we haven't seen western politicians attending a thousand strong rallies held here in support of. the current ukrainian president in fact a lot of observers are starting to raise their eyebrows to what they are calling sort of an indignant fire behavior by western officials if western leaders have tended to opposition rallies in countries such as this spain or portugal or greece where people are pouring out in the streets protesting against this terrorism measures that simply would be unthinkable and to a political scandal. russia's prime minister to make medvedev has expressed concern over the involvement of foreign diplomats new crimes internal matters. still don't know but i can imagine how our german partners would have felt if russia's foreign minister decided to attend a rally that was being held against german rule i don't think they would consider

it a friendly step out of a meeting with opposition members is one thing you know they're taking part in rallies that's interference and domestic affairs minister at the foot of the show ukraine's opposition leaders say they have been summoned to the prosecutor general's office for questioning meanwhile a court has given protesters in kiev five days to stop blocking government buildings and to leave days that they have seen the violent dispersal of protesters last weekend to spark war discontent in kiev where activists are rallying against the special police scene it has been said has been a kenya's diffusing excessive force we spoke to political analyst alexander and he believes that the actions of western politicians in kiev don't fit with democratic standards. this is clear here it's an internal affairs of a sovereign country and they're not even hiding more so this is something that's should be unacceptable. as

a democratic stand you just have to have call our country to make its own sovereign choice and western diplomats are just not doing that and they're not really concerning themselves about your actual situation or the benefit of the contrie or the people if you're just looking at it from the economic standpoint you in the west have nothing to offer. slogans about democracy human rights and so it's really just a big. chance game and it's pretty simple actually. online we've got more on the situation in kiev including how extremist movements may be used in the ongoing unrest for their own benefit to you head to r.t. dot com for the full story. two detainees from the tourist guantanamo bay detention center have been sent home

to algeria against their will one of them was hoping to be reunited with his family living in bosnia while the other wanted to return to canada or luxembourg where he once lived and worked they both fear prosecution and further imprisonment in their home country as artie's and to see chalk and reports. at a glacial pace u.s. officials attempt to move forward with the limbo known as guantanamo with endless excuses and a web of bureaucracy allegedly getting in the way of just closing the place down in the latest attempt to take baby steps to figure out what to do with its detainees the u.s. has transferred two prisoners to their home country of algeria out of one hundred sixty four the majority of whom have long been cleared for transfer or release this sever petri you should was involuntary and took place despite the detainees pleas to not have this happen as the feared mistreatment or torture upon their return home the lawyers of the two men. and some have described the move as political

expedience callous since the prisoners had made it clear they fear of persecution back at home while countries in europe had been willing to accept that the pentagon has stated however that humane treatment assurances had been made prior to this move this is the first transfer since two other men were sent to algeria willingly in august this year notoriously standard guantanamo neither of the men transferred were ever charged with any crime during the entire decade be spent behind bars at the scandalous detention camp the algerian natives were brought there back in two thousand and two and taken to camp x.-ray which we've actually visited when reporting from guantanamo it's an area where some prisoners have been once controversially interrogated with no one actually held there today the number of detainees at guantanamo is now at one hundred sixty two fifteen prisoners continue to be on hunger strike years since obama had promised to shut the prison down on day one of his presidency and efficient and clear plan to close guantanamo yet to

be put in place and if they see it you're going to new york. the world is grieving the death of south african the apartheid icon mandela later in the program we take a closer look at his legacy and how he overturned world opinion making the transition from being branded a terrorist to becoming one of the greatest freedom fighters in history. thousands of fast food and retail workers in the u.s. staged a national strike on thursday calling for an increase to the minimum wage president obama pledged to push for higher salaries in the industry back in february but critics say little has been done since artie's marina porton i was at a protest in new york. what began here in new york city one year ago with just two hundred employees has exploded into arguably the biggest wave of protest in the history of america's fast food industry thousands of fast food employees in more

than one hundred cities throughout this country have walked off the job thursday demanding an increase in minimum wage and the right to unionize now this movement is being spearheaded by an organization called fast food forward and the fast food workers that have joined the strike work at meijer restaurants like wendy's mcdonald's burger king and k.f.c. now while fast food remains a two hundred billion dollar industry the median wage for the service workers like the cooks and the cashiers in the group nationwide is just eight dollars and ninety four cents an hour here in new york city it's even worse with the minimum wage being seven dollars and twenty five cents an hour now because of the low wages and many of the employees if not most employed at fast food restaurants are living in poverty i don't know why by the grace of god i am. i am in

a shelter trying to get out of there and i can do it because i don't get paid that much some struggling you know and that's why i'm here out of one of these we will four million dollars yeah so for right to take it a family who have a single people nest america away and i believe all fall there's invision a country not full cooperation before the working man and by mother make way too much money for us to be treated like this where the one will give them the money that they were the one earns and then if they were not earning them because they're the one who takes the money home to make matters worse this problem is only growing load we need jobs have accounted for the bulk of new jobs added during the so-called us. harbury in addition to retail at fast food are among the fastest growing sectors in the u.s. economy now what these protesters are demanding is that minimum wage be raised to fifteen dollars an hour so far only one city in washington state has met those

demands this crowd around me they're doing so to fight for a basic decent living wage an opportunity to just step one foot into the worlds of the so called american dream reporting from new york marina arctic. still to come the high price of easy money. is this person's quakes gamble with a number of high feet but himself having exploded in recent years we're taking a look at one missing this pool think he's concerned among complainers and whether or not hifi busting still living up to the promise is the socially responsible behavior more on high betting machines are proving irresistible to both gamblers i'm bookmakers in a couple them and. i was thinking somehow i had to come back because mom was waiting for me. and i just

knew that everything would be fine for some reason we were so confident because we were going to get married officially after he came back how could he not come back the mere thought of it never crossed her mind. that the militants decided to try and break through in her new guinea screaming grenade . explosion blew mulroney's back. and it was all over all. we know that our comrades and our commander won't leave us no matter how tough it gets we're team. you're forgetting was a senior in his military trio. he knew that if he didn't smother that grenade with his body or if just comrades would die he gave his own life to save his friends.

welcome back the world is mourning the death of nelson mandela south africa's first black president he led the country out of decades of apartheid he died at age ninety five at his home in johannesburg following a long illness crowds took to the streets in johannesburg to greet mandela's death and celebrate his legacy after a memorial service expects to draw tens of thousands of mourners mandela's body will be flown to his home fairly and he will be interred on his family estate according to you he's with shoes reacting to the news of his death world leaders have praised him as a hero of our time and a giant for justice some of the most glowing tributes have been coming from the u.k. but that's not always been the case is artie's lower smith explains. almost every

single newspaper this morning that is a picture of mandela passed across the front page it happened also thursday night was the premiere in london of a new film of nelson mandela's life a long walk to freedom and that was attended here in london by nelson mandela's daughter who learned of his death tolls way through the film it was also attended by the duke and duchess of cambridge said that started the royal tribute to prince william as he was leaving the film called mandela an extraordinary and inspiring man and the queen also paid a somewhat personal tribute to mandela saying that she remembered their meetings with great warmth and then of course political tributes came in from europe and from all over the world and here in this country they were led of course by david cameron who called mandela a towering figure a legend in life and now in death a true global hero and said that

a great light has gone out in the world and then ordered for the flag to be flown at half mast downing street as on a lot of other official buildings across london but this is all a massive turnaround if we look just at david cameron for example in one thousand nine hundred five he was one of the leading members of an organization called the federation of conservative students and they produced a post that called for the hanging of nelson mandela and it's not clear whether david cameron was personally involved but certainly the organization he belonged to was also around that time made a trip to south africa as a rising star in the conservative movement and they were low being against sanctions on the apartheid movement so most certainly. in one thousand nine hundred seventy also you had margaret thatcher you slammed him as a terrorist said that the a.n.c. could never rule south africa anyone who thought so it was living in cloud cuckoo land and it was a similar picture in the us but actually even more delayed in terms of his

rehabilitation if you like. was on the terror list and he and his associates were removed from the database until as late as two thousand and eight nine years after his presidency of south africa was already my colleague paula steer has been looking at this in more detail mandela's life over in south africa. he's the man who pulled a troubled and divided land back from the brink of civil war the man who after twenty seven tough years behind bars walked free from prison in his heart was not revenge i think that his greatest legacy to this country is reconciliation but in the last three decades the world titus lee published the image of nelson mandela and image recognized around the world only coca-cola is better known better men who struggle for racial equality again south africa's ruling white minority had a dark side the world has conveniently forgotten about now some and i've been

leader of a struggle. a radical. someone. in braced for violence and as a necessary political instrument at a particular juncture in our history this house was the secret headquarters of the african national congress it was here in the early sixty's that mandela and his comrades launched the armed struggle it was also here that most of them were wasted put on trial and sentencing to life in prison south african journalist chris bishop believes the one nine hundred sixty four trial that saw mandela and his comrades sentenced to life helped turn the world in their favor during the trial. these gentlemen who were on trial the rivonia trial as they went from being the accused of being people in the dark as slowly transformed they became the benjamin franklin's of africa they became the freedom fighters they

began the man of principle who is standing up merely for the rights of others and it's only to turn world opinion around from a vile terrorist to one of the greatest freedom fighters to have ever walked the earth the story of nelson mandela is remarkable a man who stood up for the rights of people everywhere but also a familiar tale of governments putting a garland of. was around your neck one day and a rope the next point to our t. johannesburg south africa and for more reaction to the death of nelson mandela opinions and analysis of his legacy to you head to our website at r.t. dot com. labor m.p.'s in the u.k. have failed to convince ministers to restrict stakes and prizes in betting machines installed in bookmakers shops the fixed odds terminals into which britons pump billions of pounds have been dubbed crack cocaine on the high street parties sarah firth reports on the high price of addiction. there are high risk high stakes

gaming machines this in the u.k. betting industry more than a billion pounds each year for. a short fix of. a machine. and to comply. to one hundred every twenty seconds this is a twenty second cycle every twenty seconds. you could feasibly. three hundred power my children my wife my job my self-esteem. ok. the government's two thousand and five gambling act limited the number of. betting shops allowed to have to four machines now more recently in response to both public and political concern the association of british bookmakers has

released a voluntary code of conduct aimed at encouraging socially responsible behavior but we've seen evidence of among some leading. everyone seems to be playing strictly by the rules inside this labrat says a glass petition it enables the store to carry not full but eight for the machines which are the ones. that you. are. in a statement about the store said this shop was a concept shop and there are no plans to open any further shops of this kind. in terms of. a complete. x. army major just in ase well how devastating the effects of

a gambling addiction can be a last point was the day when. my mom my dad and my little brother he's actually taller than me came and just said that we've got to get you out of here. and those just crying in. that's when i lost all my pride and i was completely humiliated but it's great because that was the day. well i realized my recovery justin's written a book about his experience and is helping others on their raids to recovery but with scant research into the effects of these machines and as the industry seeks to maximize profit campaign is warning that not taking action eva for pity's is one gamble person cold food to take so r.t. london now an r.t. dot com at the moment adoption swap allegations prompts russian authorities to take

action they intend to look at evidence that russian children have been trafficked online in america we've got the full story on our website plus. the future is almost here don't be surprised if you come across a robot instead of a salesman in a short speech just google's latest high tech idea we've got all these stories are just a click away for you at r.t. dot com. calls are mounting for a broad international effort to secure the release of twelve month reportedly held hostage by radical islamist rebels in syria the women were seized from a ministry during an opposition assault on a predominantly christian and pope francis called for prayers for the nuns and three orphaned young women who were moved to the nearby town if you have the series minorities including christians have mostly been siding with the sad all remain neutral in syria's civil war often becoming a target of the rebels increasingly dominated by islamic extremists syrian

ambassador to the u.n. bashar jaffrey told r.t. some foreign powers have influence over the kidnappers. we asked the security council members and the secretary general to act immediately and to shoulder their responsibilities in order to make pressure on those states and governments who may have influence over these terrorist groups so that they would be released without any condition if the norms and the orphans we should make a petition are actually on the saudi government. and the qatari government as well as a cricket government if these three governments are deeply involved in escalating the situation in syria through the operations conducted undertaken by terrorist groups let's have a quick look at some other stories this hour in northern somalia a suicide bomber has killed at least nine people in an attack on to pickup trucks carrying members of a maritime police unit thirty seven officers were also injured in the attack no

group has said they carried out the a cell but al shabaab is thought to be the number one suspect after being pushed from nash wrong holds the al qaeda links insurgents have been trying to gain control of the north of the country. northwestern europe is being battered by severe weather two people have been killed and thousands moved to safety is the worst tidal surge in sixty years sweeps down the british coast around one hundred thousand homes were left without power in scotland and environment agency spokesman says that six thousand properties in england and wales could be flooded. hundreds have protested in islamabad against american drone strikes in pakistan a rally was staged by the. party led by the former cricket star a man can demonstrate is chanted anti us like and demanded an immediate end to all drone attacks the strikes are deeply unpopular in pakistan but american officials

say they are crucial in the fight against terror. france's defense minister says military operations have begun in the central african republic after president along promised to take immediate action to kerby escalation of sectarian violence there earlier a un security council resolution authorized french troops to join an african peacekeeping force french class fresh clashes between local militias in the capital have been killed have killed over one hundred people with limb rebels the seized power in fighting with christians who support the president is has sparked fears that the conflict could expand into a full blown sectarian war hundreds of french troops are already deployed in the republic and neighboring states are beyond me as a kiwi editor of pan-african news wire says that improving the security situation in the country is not france's main goal but. i do not believe that france has the

capability of normalizing the central situation inside the central african republic . is only pursuing its own national interests it's also competing with the role of the united states on the african continent the u.s. has intervened extensively over the last several years in africa members countries there's the united states africa command in africa arm so for us as well does not want to be left out of this new scramble for africa people have to keep in mind that this. central african republic has very important strategic resources such as coal diamonds and you radium which are essential to the overall international economic system so this is part of the ongoing imperialist rivalry between nine states for control of post-colonial africa. and up next

a report on high social programs in africa a feeling that. we often see the middle east as a place of constant turmoil and revolution but people in thailand seem to be very fired up as well masses of protesters are force a government ministries to shut down by storming them with human waves one such ministry is the thai equivalent of the american f.b.i. which has been accused of killing around ninety people in a crackdown on those who support ousted prime minister taksin shinawatra who is the brother of the current leader wow people are crying out for democracy with accusations of violence against protesters so where is barack obama john kerry the

mainstream media i mean whatever some group of rebels protesters are i mean freedom fighters rise up for democracy are we supposed to arm them like in syria and or bomb their country back into the stone age like in libya serbia iraq some protests explode across the mainstream media with calls for intervention and others are almost totally silent like thailand and bulgaria where there have also been strong links of buildings less than a month ago i might be conspiracy theorist but the selective coverage and selective concern for some humans rights and not for the rights of others well it smells a bit fishy to me but that's just my opinion. the continuing inconsistent rise of china be declaring restrictive fly zones or a critical view on the subject of buying u.s. dollar debt in fact it would appear china is tearing a page from washington's playbook it too will make rules to fit its geopolitical interests.

pendent of the world bank and the international monetary fund africa finds itself crippled by foreign debt and remains a continent of great poverty and inequality is. as long as we are in thrall to and dominated by debt i've even go so far as to say enslaved. there is no attention paid to social affairs like health and education can you imagine we have to sacrifice congolese children who have to die who cannot study because they have to pay for the debt. and the international community talks about generosity now they are talking about cancelling the debt as an act of generosity by controlling the country's resources. that they say it is used to keep countries with natural resources under control.